Quickly edit a few hundred compositions....

So here is the deal ... I have about 800 archival video clips in an aspect ratio of 1440x1080 which I want to convert to 1920x1080 / square pixels. Now these files are all .MTS which has me only able to view/edit and render them in AE CS6 - after which I can plug them into FCP for the documentary I am making.

I am currently making each clip its own composition and then hot keying composition settings, manually changing the width from 1440 to 1920, then selecting square pixels from the drop down, hitting OKAY then going onto the net one.

Unsurprisingly I feel like a zombie after the first 100 clips and am wondering if there is a script or way to copy/paste composition settings from CLIP A onto CLIP B. Some form of automation will also help negate human error of not selecting square pixels on a certain clip, or pasting 1920 twice and breaking another.

Um, isn't there an application that can batch convert MTS video to ProRes 422? You might ask about it on the FCP forum -- they'd know. A couple of clips? AE's okay. Hundreds? It would be a lot easier to use a tool meant for that purpose.

on Jan 9, 2015 at 1:24:14 amLast Edited By John Cuevas on Jan 9, 2015 at 1:26:05 am

I would look into changing the interpretation rules AE is using when it imports the video. It's a huge text document, but if you can figure out which rules it is using for those videos, you should be able to alter them so that it makes each one 1920x1080 square pixels. I've had to do this so AE correctly imports Avid DNxHD for color space, so if I can figure it out, anyone can.

"I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."
---THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

I have found an Interpret Footage feature, and I can change the entirety of my imports to be square pixels with this method - but I cannot change the size at the same time. No matter, I thought, and changed the pixels all to square to save myself 50% of the job, but when I go through my compositions one-by-one and change them to 1920 the image doesn't stretch with the canvas, so I am back to the changing 1-by-1 method until I have time to knuckle down and figure it out (never :( )